Today, I took a day off, to go to the Gemsstock for speed flying. It was almost as sunny as the forecast predicted. The cirrus became dense in the afternoon. Although the prevailing wind was north west, sometimes it blew down the slope, especially in the lower parts. But it was well within the comfort zone. The first few runs were from the galcier to the Gurschen (the middle station), along the glacier ski slope. Once the sun was higher, I switched to the Felsental (rock valley) which runs from the top all the way to Andermatt. That’s about 1’500 meters altitude difference and takes less than five minutes with the speed wing.
I did lots of touch n goes and some longer skiing sections along the different terrace steps. Then, all of a sudden in a straight section that didn’t look so bad, one ski jumped off my foot and stayed there in the deep snow. The next two terrace steps were not suited for landing, and I was too fast anyway. Walking up from farther down in the deep snow of the steep slopes seemed too exhausting. So I flew down to Andermatt, intending to try and fly to the place where I lost the ski. I was not sure how easy it would be to take off with only one ski. Turns out, I succeeded at the first try without any problem. No idea if every attempt would go so well. I looked for a good place where I could slope land in the tight valley, close to where I anticipated the ski. Again, the one foot landing went smooth. But then I walked around in the deep snow for more than half an hour searching for the missing ski. Walking one of these slopes uphill was indeed exhausting. So I took the one ski and descended to the next terrace step. When it was too steep, I sat on it, almost like a sledge. Once I found it, the rest of the descent was a lot easier…
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